By A Correspondent
Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication (PG), Pune hosted its annual Media Management Conclave on September 6, 2015. A part of the ‘Inspire Series,’ which is a series of lectures and events that celebrate the completion of 25 glorious years of academic excellence at SIMC, this event brought together some of the finest minds of the industry to discuss the theme ‘Navigating the Future Media Landscape.’
The speakers comprised eminent industry experts like Tanmay Mohanty, MD, Performics, Resultrix, Anil Fernandes, Associate Publisher, India Today, Atrayee Chakraborty, Managing CP Media Business, RedFuse Communications, MEC, Paritosh Joshi, Board of Governors, Media Research Users Council (MRUC), Ankit Desai, Head of Media & Digital Marketing, Marico India, Romil Ramgarhia, Chief Business Officer, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), Mallikarjun Das, CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group, and Vanita Keswani, COO, Madison Media Sigma.
The keynote speaker, Amit Ray, Founder Partner, Media First set the tone for the discussions of the day by delving into the current trends in the industry. The pervasive nature of digital and the growing power of the mobile phone emerged as some of the key insights from his talk. “There is a lot of work happening on mobile, which will make it the next big thing for advertising.†Elaborating on the importance of brands he said, “Today, brands are deciding the enterprise’s wealth. You (students) are here to support the creation of brands, because it is brands who create valueâ€
This interaction with the students was followed by the first panel discussion which included personalities such as Tanmay Mohanty, Anil Fernandes, and Atrayee Chakraborty. This panel deliberated on the topic ‘Drivers of Growth for Media Businesses.’ Building upon the trend highlighted by Amit Ray in his speech, Anil Fernandes said, “Digital is going to be the key driver of change as it reshapes the consumer’s purchase journey, and it will be aided by content and context.†Taking this discussion further, Atrayee Chakraborty said, “Create, optimize, promote, measure and analyze the contentâ€. Based on her observation of the current consumer, Atrayee put forth a very interesting take on digital, “I do not consider digital to be a media. It is a behaviour.â€
Tanmay Mohanty spoke about the changing platforms for reaching consumers. Emphasising it further, he said, “Tech companies are investing big time in understanding the consumer journey and behaviour.†Shedding light on the synergy between media and content, Anil Fernandes said, “Content is king. If media owners understand the relationship of their content with the media, they will definitely inch closer to change and growth.â€
This first panel was followed by a showcase wherein the second year MBA students from the Media Management cohort devised a ‘Tool Innovation’ for media agencies that could help them serve clients better. This showcase witnessed five teams presenting their creations before a panel of judges, comprising Romil Ramgarhia, Paritosh Joshi and Ankit Desai. These innovative ideas ranged from an influencer measurement tool, to testing the ability of content to go viral, as well as measurement of multiple screen usage. The winning team brought before the judges a tool that could comprehensively measure OOH advertising using GPS-enabled technology, while a team that created an application to digitally track radio listenership came a close second.
Steering the discussion to one of the most important phenomena in the industry today, the second panel brought together experts such as Paritosh Joshi, Ankit Desai, Romil Ramgarhia and Mallikarjun Das to discuss the topic, ‘The New face of Media Research & Analytics.’ Paritosh Joshi opened the floor for the second panel discussion by emphasizing the importance of understanding one’s audience. “It is not enough to know who my audience is, but also why my audience is what it is.”
The panel deliberated extensively on the adequate and efficient usage of data by media. “There’s a conflict between the mental model and the mathematical model. This is the conflict that all media planners face. Out of the 35-40,000 crore industry that we have, 55% is driven by gut feel.The same people who are willing to use gut feel for television, suddenly want nuclear-physics-level mathematics for digital,” said Mallikarjun Das The panelists unanimously voted for a platform-agnostic audience measurement tool to overcome the ‘tyranny of relative error’ as stated by Mallikarjun Das.
After the engaging conversation moderated by Mr Joshi, the conclave continued into the final panel discussion, that explored the topic ‘Talent Management: Changing Roles and Skillsets.’ The panelists included Mallikarjun Das and Vanita Keswani. On being asked for her views on the requirement of talent in the industry today, Vanita expressed, “We recommend the freshers to have an understanding of the basics of digital. Training of a structured kind is important, but on-the-job training is what you need in media. Today, a lot of what you’re learning here at SIMC and your internships is great.†In addition to this, Mallikarjun Das pointed out that future media professionals must ideally be planners, with a deep understanding of the industry, in order to bridge the gaps. He stressed on the fact that if students are trained in the worldview of media, they will be ready to work from day one.
The event lent the students a fresh perspective of the media management industry. The aspiring media managers had an opportunity to understand the multiple facets of this dynamic industry that would be instrumental in their careers.
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